For small-batch producers, capacity is rarely one number. An oven, mixer, production day, staff availability, pickup window, and individual products can all become the limit.

At Ember Bakehouse, that pushed us beyond a simple maximum order count. We needed product limits and shared capacity across items that use the same production resources.

When you decide a pickup or delivery date is full, what rule do you use today: total orders, total items, product-specific caps, production hours, equipment capacity, or judgment?

I am interested in the real rule businesses use, including the messy version that lives in someone's head or spreadsheet.

We built OrderPay after seeing a small bakery outgrow messages, spreadsheets and the limits of a payment-only setup. I would love to learn where other preorder businesses feel the operational pain first.

Is it keeping rotating menus current, preventing overbooking against production capacity, enforcing cutoffs and pickup dates, turning paid orders into preparation and packing lists, or managing custom baskets and recurring orders?

If you run a bakery, meal-prep service, catering business or another limited-capacity operation, what does your current workflow look like? I will share how Natalia handles it at Ember Bakehouse and use the answers to guide OrderPay.